Looks like you just cant keep a good sports biopic down.
After the Brad Pitt staring Moneyball looked to be shelved after budget concerns, we now find out that they are moving forward with the project after a few tweaks with Bennett Miller at the helm.
So, Soderbergh left the project over budgetary concerns and a script the studio didn’t like. Aaron Sorkin re-wrote it and Bennett Miller (Capote) will now direct it, and Deadline says everything’s a go again for this summer.
There are a few things that remain the same, and a few things that have changed. For starters, Brad Pitt is still playing Oakland A’s GM Billy Beane, upon whose story the book is based.
The budget now is around $47 million, down about 20% from Soderbergh’s rate. The format of the movie has been shifted, too. Instead of a docu-drama approach (with oodles of baseball player cameos and…um…animation), Miller will have a more run-of-the-mill sports bio-pic, albeit behind the scenes. Another fairly recent development is the signing of Jonah Hill, who will play Beane’s stat-obsessed right hand man, Paul De Podesta.
Adding Hill (replacing Demitiri Martin) gives me a bad taste for the film already, perhaps he will play it straight as the brainy numbers guy. I keep hoping Hill will impress me, but for the life of me I don’t know why.
